WINAMP 5.8 new version 2018 is up.

[Tomgang]

Just playing around with it... so far, so good. It has not crashed for me, yet (never say never ).
So far, I have not seen any unusual activity with it, either.

Yeah i dont no, for me keep crashing.

I'll experiment first with a machine that's VLANed out first as well.



Jep. My track list have most of the good old ones. Rednex - cotton eye joe, whigfield - saturday night, 2 Unlimited - No limit, Captain jack - Captain jack, MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This and so on.

e.

You stole mah playlist from then! haha Cotton eye joe was the first winamp song for me.[/QUOTE]

Cotten eye joe whas a countries plague back then in my country. Play every time at party's and thing like that.

But it looks like winamp still has is users based that this thread is pretty active. Not to shabby for software this old.

 

[GoldenX]

I bet foobar2000 will be the same 10 years down the line.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

As someone who uses Winamp as a go-to music player over Windows Media Player (still a good player, but not good enough IMO), seeing a beta release of what has been an eternity is a breathe of fresh air. Time to download it & test drive this new player. =D

 

[Octopuss]

I gave up on hoping Winamp would ever be resurrected several months ago and switched to AIMP, but I am not entirely happy about the playlist and some minor things.
I might just give this a shot since it seems to finally support Wasapi as well.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I can't remember the last time I had a mp3 on my PC, I do have random tracks on my iphone's ipod but wow, this brings back the nostalgia feeling.

Wow, really? Where do you store you music then?

We cool people have .flacs

Flac's are nice quality, but good grief the amount of space they take up. I personally prefer 256 or 320kbps mp3's. But hey, I'm not cool like that.. LOL!

But it looks like winamp still has is users based that this thread is pretty active. Not to shabby for software this old.

Good software holds on. If it works and works well, why use anything different.

 

[phill]

Flac's are nice quality, but good grief the amount of space they take up. I personally prefer 256 or 320kbps mp3's. But hey, I'm not cool like that.. LOL!

I've just been looking at AAC files, done a few tests on some of my MP3's on my home server and the space you can save is about 2/3 So for a 4Mb MP3, for the same 'spec' AAC it's about 1Mb Needless to say, it'll save you some space and apparently the quality is even better I'm not sure you'd notice it on a set of basic speakers on a PC but with a decent sound card and such, it might be a little better?

 

[lexluthermiester]

I've just been looking at AAC files, done a few tests on some of my MP3's on my home server and the space you can save is about 2/3 So for a 4Mb MP3, for the same 'spec' AAC it's about 1Mb Needless to say, it'll save you some space and apparently the quality is even better I'm not sure you'd notice it on a set of basic speakers on a PC but with a decent sound card and such, it might be a little better?

Haven't looked into it. My entire library is in mp3 format. Reconverting all of my CD's(yes, I still buy and use them) to AAC would be very time consuming. Not sure it would be worth the effort to convert at this time.

 

[phill]

Haven't looked into it. My entire library is in mp3 format. Reconverting all of my CD's(yes, I still buy and use them) to AAC would be very time consuming. Not sure it would be worth the effort to convert at this time.

Do you have much/many MP3's? With my podcasts and music videos, I think I'm about the 2.3Tb at the mo, it grows every week but much like yourself, I still buy CD's and since the girl friend has moved in, I'll be ripping all of hers as well just for backup more than anything
I'm of the same belief but I did find a few tool to do this with and the conversion didn't take very long at all About 30 seconds for a complete album. Obviously it might take a little less or longer depending on the sample/bit/stereo etc modes you use, but when I get home I'll upload my findings I did on a podcast I download. Thought it might have been just worth while mentioning.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Glad to see it back, I saved a copy of the installer back when they were going offline and have still been using it.

I torrented the 5.6 pro version years ago. I cant remember when i did it but ive been running it for at least 6-8years or so.

I can't remember the last time I had a mp3 on my PC, I do have random tracks on my iphone's ipod but wow, this brings back the nostalgia feeling.

I dont have any MP3s on my PC -- everything got moved across onto NAS some 8 years back. Now i can enjoy my content wherever i am!

 

[lexluthermiester]

Do you have much/many MP3's? With my podcasts and music videos, I think I'm about the 2.3Tb at the mo

Wow! Not nearly that much. Most of my collection is just music. Never done the podcast thing but do have some music video's, just not a lot.

About 30 seconds for a complete album. Obviously it might take a little less or longer depending on the sample/bit/stereo etc modes you use, but when I get home I'll upload my findings I did on a podcast I download. Thought it might have been just worth while mentioning.

Appreciated. Thing is, I'm happy with mp3 and the way it works. A new format has to offer a benefit over the existing one to justify that much effort and time, which right now not so much. There's also a compatibility thing, not all of the programs I use support AAC. All of them support mp3.

 

[phill]

Wow! Not nearly that much. Most of my collection is just music. Never done the podcast thing but do have some music video's, just not a lot.

Appreciated. Thing is, I'm happy with mp3 and the way it works. A new format has to offer a benefit over the existing one to justify that much effort and time, which right now not so much. There's also a compatibility thing, not all of the programs I use support AAC. All of them support mp3.

Yeah I have a few podcasts as I'm a big trance fan, so I download a lot from a site called Trance Podcasts Site (it's brilliant, love it!! ) so that helps a bit with the amount of data that has shall we say, accumulated over the times Plus I've got a fair bit of ripping to do as well as I think with the girl friends music and mine, it's going to take a while to go through our CDs.. I've got to take a look at my blu rays as well, I think it's not going to end well!!

I'm happy with MP3 as well (wonder why I get talked into trying things and then get issues!! but I've not had any issues playing the files as yet and I've just done some testing to find out how small the files can get and if I notice any difference when I listen to them (on board sound card and a Z-5500 Logitech speaker setup.. Nothing massively special) so nothing as yet to be honest.. I do have installed the big codec pack and I just use Media Player and Classic Media Player too view/listen to stuff

I dont have any MP3s on my PC -- everything got moved across onto NAS some 8 years back. Now i can enjoy my content wherever i am!

Best thing I've ever done as well but my upload speed sucks from home so it might not be very much help at all lol

 

[lexluthermiester]

on board sound card and a Z-5500 Logitech speaker setup

I use a SoundBlaster card and a home theater system with 4 full range speakers for my PC. The fine grained controls that Winamp affords always shines on this kind of setup.

 

[phill]

I use a SoundBlaster card and a home theater system with 4 full range speakers for my PC. The fine grained controls that Winamp affords always shines on this kind of setup.

I do have a external sound card but I've not plugged that in (doesn't support optical sadly but I could get away with the 3.5mm jacks if I wanted) but my home cinema is downstairs where the TV is, I suppose I could always try Plex on my Server upstairs and see how that works
What setup do you have for the home theater system?

 

[bug]

Jep. My track list have most of the good old ones. Rednex - cotton eye joe, whigfield - saturday night, 2 Unlimited - No limit, Captain jack - Captain jack, MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This and so on.[/QUOTE]

Oh man, did you just say 2 Unlimited? I saw them in concert once (same for Rednex, but that was more like meh)

And yes, on Windows, my mp3s still open in Winamp.

Haven't looked into it. My entire library is in mp3 format. Reconverting all of my CD's(yes, I still buy and use them) to AAC would be very time consuming. Not sure it would be worth the effort to convert at this time.

AAC only sounds better than MP3 at lower bitrates. Once you go 256kbps or more, you can't really tell them apart. Or you need really expensive equipment to do it. So yeah, I would waste time reencoding everything. You could try a few tracks to check whether you hear any difference though.

 

[lexluthermiester]

What setup do you have for the home theater system?

It's an older AIWA surround sound bookshelf system, the NSX-D939. Example picture below.

Have had it for years and it's been great. For PC gaming and listening to music it hits all the right notes, pun intended.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I bet foobar2000 will be the same 10 years down the line.

MusicBee > foobar!

Shots Fired!

 

[blobster21]

Benefits of this v5.8 over the previous v5.666 ?

 

[TheGuruStud]

Canada has the worst "artists". Is there a single one that's not terrible? They should reclaim those worthless people and hide them for public view.

 

[phill]

It's an older AIWA surround sound bookshelf system, the NSX-D939. Example picture below.
View attachment 109229
Have had it for years and it's been great. For PC gaming and listening to music it hits all the right notes, pun intended.

I remember the Aiwa systems, always wanted one, never got one :lol: As I'm home from work early, here's the comparison I said about

Even with the maximum AAC settings, it saves a fair bit of space, so just something to consider

 

[Ahhzz]

I remember the Aiwa systems, always wanted one, never got one :lol: As I'm home from work early, here's the comparison I said about

View attachment 109232

Even with the maximum AAC settings, it saves a fair bit of space, so just something to consider

Nice comparisons.... Makes me consider remastering my ripped discs....

 

[GoldenX]

Go .flac and never look bacc.

 

[Tomgang]

Wow, really? Where do you store you music then?


Flac's are nice quality, but good grief the amount of space they take up. I personally prefer 256 or 320kbps mp3's. But hey, I'm not cool like that.. LOL!


Good software holds on. If it works and works well, why use anything different.

Winamp is for sure propper working software accept the latest beta version, it crash for me.

Jep. My track list have most of the good old ones. Rednex - cotton eye joe, whigfield - saturday night, 2 Unlimited - No limit, Captain jack - Captain jack, MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This and so on.

Oh man, did you just say 2 Unlimited? I saw them in concert once (same for Rednex, but that was more like meh)

And yes, on Windows, my mp3s still open in Winamp.


AAC only sounds better than MP3 at lower bitrates. Once you go 256kbps or more, you can't really tell them apart. Or you need really expensive equipment to do it. So yeah, I would waste time reencoding everything. You could try a few tracks to check whether you hear any difference though.[/QUOTE]

Yes i dit infact say 2 unlimited. Love tracks from the 90's.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Even with the maximum AAC settings, it saves a fair bit of space, so just something to consider

Ah but how does it sound, AAC 192k VS MP3 320k? Is 192k the highest bitrate AAC can do?

EDIT;
Just did some reading up on it and will try it out.

 

[phill]

From what I have heard, I couldn't really tell much of a difference, but then the issue you might have is it functioning on other devices (phone etc I suppose) because some devices may not support it..

I've been going through a few sites below (I hope this is ok TPU) and been wondering if anywhere would have given me a straight answer.... So I've hopefully included an audiophiles perspective and some other information as well..

https://www.stereophile.com/features/308mp3cd/index.htm

https://www.cnet.com/news/what-is-flac-the-high-def-mp3-explained/

A few snipets from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2012/apr/12/ask-jack-digital-audio
I could also have used a lower bit rate with the AAC file format, because it is more efficient than MP3. AAC makes a real difference at low bit rates, especially below 128kbps, but it doesn't make any practical difference at 256kbps and higher bit rates. I decided against AAC because it was far less widely supported than MP3, because there are several versions of AAC, and because I noticed most people like me were using MP3. (If a lot of people have the same problem, someone will produce a fix.)

This means the extra size of FLAC files – which can be roughly half the size of the original WAV files – is less of an issue. For comparison, a 24-bit FLAC version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973) takes up 239MB whereas my 320kbps MP3 version takes up 71MB.

For anyone wanting pure audio quality, then FLAC is the best option. According to everything I've just read, it's the best quality but then it makes the biggest files.. as always a pay off for having the best quality. Then for the MP3, well again that's decent enough for most people and also is a lot smaller to fit on things so it's not taking up Petra bytes of storage....
As mentioned from the source above, a FLAC v MP3 is nearly 3.5 times bigger so if I converted everything over to FLAC, I'd need a few more TB's of storage just to fit it on my drives! Not to mention I'm sure it'll be a right pig to stream from my home.. A 5Mbit is gonna struggle (so in real money about 600kb/sec to 700kb/sec providing the wind's behind it....)
It was mentioned that AAC was far better than MP3 even at lower bit rates (48, 64, 96 etc) in comparison, so anything above 128 might not show a massive increase..

The only thing I can say really is give AAC or FLAC or stick with MP3 should you want to.. If I had the space I'd consider FLAC but then having to re-encode things to listen to them should your device not support it, seems daft..
The conversion program I've been suggested and used, seems to be rather good. It's here - Format Factory it's not got anything extra in the install that I can remember (please do be careful just incase!!) but it's free and works really well I'll see if I can rip a CD later with FLAC and then try AAC, see if I can hear any differences with my Z-5500 speakers I'm guessing I might be able to with my proper hi-fi but I'm not carting everything downstairs lol

Apologises for the long post Hope this helps

 

[GoldenX]

Be careful with how you encode flac, most programs don't let you use the highest compression.
Any Android phone can play flac.